Strawberry And Chocolate

At the 1993 Havana film festival the anticipation of the premiere of Strawberry and Chocolate was so intense that it reached riot proportions. For this was a major Cuban film by Cuba's greatest film director, Tomas Gutierrez Alea, that dealt with issues of freedom that in Castro's Cuba were controversial, to say the least. Strawberry and Chocolate was based on a short story by its screenwriter, Senel Paz, that told of the growing friendship between a young but naive Communist militant and an older gay intellectual disillusioned with the intolerance of the Cuban revolution.

`Two Thumbs Up" is a familiar seal of approval for most American movie-lovers. The trademark belongs to film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who popularized the art of movie criticism, making it relevant for the average theater-goer. Now half of this movie-review team is gone. Siskel died on Saturday while recuperating from brain surgery. He will be sorely missed. Siskel, 53, was the softer and more emotional side to this partnership. He was the guy who wore his heart on his sleeve while talking, often passionately, about movies.

Cuba's entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, Strawberry and Chocolate, is the absorbing tale of a naive communist college student and a gay intellectual. Set in 1972, it traces the evolving friendship between the men against the backdrop of Havana during a time of intolerance for homosexuality and political disillusionment among those with an alternative lifestyle. Besides being the only flavors available in Cuba's restricted economy, the ice creams in the title also are subtle metaphors for sexual preference.

Few filmmakers manage to make their swan song serve as their epitaph. Cuba's pre-eminent director, Tomas Gutierrez Alea, did: The theme of his last film, made when cancer was about to claim his life in April, is death. Yet Guantanamera, which plays at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival today, is a romantic comedy, a road movie full of liveliness and verve. "During the filming, he was feeling very well," says actress Mirta Ibarra, the director's widow, who also stars in the film.

`Two Thumbs Up" is a familiar seal of approval for most American movie-lovers. The trademark belongs to film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who popularized the art of movie criticism, making it relevant for the average theater-goer. Now half of this movie-review team is gone. Siskel died on Saturday while recuperating from brain surgery. He will be sorely missed. Siskel, 53, was the softer and more emotional side to this partnership. He was the guy who wore his heart on his sleeve while talking, often passionately, about movies.

Few filmmakers manage to make their swan song serve as their epitaph. Cuba's pre-eminent director, Tomas Gutierrez Alea, did: The theme of his last film, made when cancer was about to claim his life in April, is death. Yet Guantanamera, which plays at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival today, is a romantic comedy, a road movie full of liveliness and verve. "During the filming, he was feeling very well," says actress Mirta Ibarra, the director's widow, who also stars in the film.

FORT LAUDERDALE Over the last six months, while he's been without a home, Herman Smith has at times slept in a Salvation Army shelter and gotten clothes and food from the agency. On Friday, he got a little something extra from the agency -- ice cream. "They do a lot for us," Smith said while standing at the corner of Northwest First Street and First Avenue, in a lot known as The Tree. "On a very hot day, ice cream is delicious. " The ice cream giveaway, in its third year, is meant to evoke childhood memories of the ice cream truck coming down the street in summer, said Mayor Gene Hogg, the Fort Lauderdale area commander for the Salvation Army.

HAVANA Is Cuba ready for a safe-sex ad highlighting gays? That was the question on AIDS activists' minds recently as a small crew filmed a 30-second public service announcement featuring a svelte brunette transvestite and two men exchanging condoms. The government has not yet approved the television ad to air. But if it finds its way into millions of Cuban households, it would be a sign of change in a society where gays say they were virtually invisible only a decade ago. "We are writing history, though we still don't know whether anyone will read it," said Nelson Joel Valdez, 30, a volunteer at Havana's AIDS prevention center, who helped develop the ad. "Sometimes we don't know how far to go, or whether we aren't going far enough."

Now in its third year, the Hispanic Film Festival opens in Miami on Friday looking a lot like a Stateside version of the Havana Film Festival. That event is actually called the Festival of Latin American Cinema. The offerings in the Hispanic Film Festival (not to be confused with the more well-established Miami Film Festival) are also mostly Latin American, with a good share of movies from Spain. And the jury of this Miami movie fest, which runs through May 2, is 100 percent Cuban. "It's a coincidence," says Hispanic Film Festival director Jaim Angulo, a Spaniard.

A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips. With Valentine's Day around the corner, we've got some decadent, delicious -- and guilt-free -- treats that chocoholics will crave a lot longer than any old fattening box of candy. Light her fire with this Godiva gift. The famous Belgian chocolatier has introduced the Godiva Strawberry Rose Candle , packaged in a beautiful red box. The candle is supposed to burn for 50 hours, and its aroma resembles chocolate-dipped strawberries paired with the delicate essence of rose.

Cuba's entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, Strawberry and Chocolate, is the absorbing tale of a naive communist college student and a gay intellectual. Set in 1972, it traces the evolving friendship between the men against the backdrop of Havana during a time of intolerance for homosexuality and political disillusionment among those with an alternative lifestyle. Besides being the only flavors available in Cuba's restricted economy, the ice creams in the title also are subtle metaphors for sexual preference.

At the 1993 Havana film festival the anticipation of the premiere of Strawberry and Chocolate was so intense that it reached riot proportions. For this was a major Cuban film by Cuba's greatest film director, Tomas Gutierrez Alea, that dealt with issues of freedom that in Castro's Cuba were controversial, to say the least. Strawberry and Chocolate was based on a short story by its screenwriter, Senel Paz, that told of the growing friendship between a young but naive Communist militant and an older gay intellectual disillusioned with the intolerance of the Cuban revolution.

Walking the tree-lined streets of the Christopher Columbus Cemetery, past mausoleums topped with ascending angels, elaborate black-and-white marble tombs and chapels shaped like medieval castles, is like flipping through the pages of Cuba's history. From disgraced presidents to independence hero MM-aximo GM-smez and even Alberto Yarini, Havana's notorious early 1900s gentleman pimp, this is one of Latin America's most renowned cemeteries, a who's who of poets, politicians and prerevolutionary socialites.

The Telluride Film Festival may have turned 21 this year, but that doesn't mean it has any intention of growing up - if growing up means instilling rigid schedules or kowtowing to Hollywood's power elite. Instead, the festival offered its freewheeling Labor Day weekend mix of eclectic foreign and independent films, a few well-received, big-budget premieres - including Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway and Tim Burton's Ed Wood - and what are always among the highlights here, special tributes to filmmakers past and present.